There are free Sentinel Hub accounts and commercial data packages available for pre-commercial exploitation, research and educational purposes, sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA)! Read the NoR (Network of Resources) Sponsorship website for additional information, sponsorship procedure and evaluation criteria.
To apply for sponsorship, follow the steps below:
- Go to the NoR Discovery portal.
- Select the DPaas option under Service Filters on the left, to limit your results.
- Scroll down and search for Sentinel Hub VAS - EDC Sentinel Hub - DPaaS (you can find it quickly by pressing CTRL-F on your keyboard and writing Sentinel Hub into the dialog box).
- In the Sentinel Hub VAS - EDC Sentinel Hub - DPaaS result, click the blue Sponsoring Wizard button on the right.
- In the Sponsoring Wizard, fill in the necessary information about your project and data you need (follow the instructions of the Sponsoring Wizard).
- When done, export the proposal in PDF, sign it and email it to ESA (follow the instructions of the Sponsoring Wizard).
Step by step Sponsoring Wizard process
1. First, enter the project name, coordinator name and the name of the organization the projects belongs to. Select the project type - pre-commercial, research or educational. In project objectives, describe your project - what it's about, what are the expected results and benefits, who will benefit from them and how will results be available.
2. If the project is related to ESA, enable and fill in the ESA related options as well.
3. From the Sponsored Resource List, select the Sentinel Hub subscription you need. Note that basic subscription is suitable for most use cases, but if you'd like to do batch processing, an enterprise account is required. Enter how many subscriptions you need, and for how long (as highlighted in blue on the image below).
Note that ESA sponsorship is limited to 5000 EUR. The subscription type, amount (units) and duration all influence the cost. You can see the cost of the chosen subscription on the right, as is highlighted in orange on the image above.
4. Next, toggle on commercial data and additional processing units, if you need them. In commercial data, you will select the constellation and the amount of km2 for your project. Note, that constellations are priced differently, and the area size will impact the cost as well. Note that selecting a Sentinel Hub subscription is required, if you want to ask for commercial data.
Make sure to combine your requested subscriptions and data so it doesn't surpass the 5000 EUR limit. You can see the final cost on the bottom of your Sponsored Resource List. If you surpass the limit, the application will warn you and you won't be able to complete the request.
5. If you plan to fund part of the project yourself, make sure to toggle the option on.
6. When done, click on the blue Export Sponsoring request to export it in PDF, sign it and email it to ESA at NoR@esa.int.
That's it! ESA will evaluate your request and let you know if it's granted.
